Abstract

OBJECTIVE To identify sleep duration trajectories from early to middle adulthood and their associations with incident type 2 diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using a group-based modeling approach, we identified sleep duration trajectories based on sleep duration in ages 20–25, 26–35, 36–45, and 46+ years, which were retrospectively assessed in 2009 among 60,068 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II (median age 54.9 years) who were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. We investigated the prospective associations between sleep duration trajectories and diabetes risk (2009–2017) using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models.

CONCLUSIONS Persistent short sleep duration or changes in sleep duration from early to middle adulthood were associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes in later life. These associations were weaker after obesity and metabolic comorbidities were accounted for.